Daniel James has lifted the lid on his 'crazy' failed transfer to Leeds United in January 2019, which paved the way for him to join Manchester United.
A Swansea City player at the time, James had agreed to move to Elland Road midway through the 2018/19 campaign, even travelling up to Leeds on January deadline day to sign a contract.
But the move collapsed at the eleventh hour, as Swans chairman Huw Jenkins pulled the plug and the clubs couldn't agree terms. James was forced to head back to Swansea - though ended up signing for United the following summer.
Speaking to his former Swansea teammate Kenji Gorre on the Living The Dream podcast James revealed it was a turbulent time for him, not knowing what was happening.
"It was a weird one," said the United winger. "Because I didn't even play a game for Shrewsbury [on loan the previous season] and then I only played that FA Cup game [for Swansea] when I scored, which was a massive confidence-booster. Having played a few months for Swansea, I spoke to my agent about the fact that Leeds wanted me. They were obviously a massive club, top of the table at the time.
"I'd only just started here [at Swansea] and I was loving it here, but I had a year and a half left on my contract and at the time Swansea weren't offering me a new contract. In football you've got to be secure so it was a weird one. The manager didn't want me to leave and was hopeful the club would offer me a new contract."
The Leeds move appealed to James for a number of reasons, as they were offering a better deal, were competing for promotion, while the Wales international's family are based in Yorkshire, too. He revealed he was happy to move to Elland Road.
James added: "I couldn't really believe it then towards the end of January it was like 'yeah I do want to go'. It took a while to get done and then I went there on deadline day. Leeds being close to Hull, where my family is from, was a big factor. But I'd been at Swansea since I was 16 to 21, and those years are massive.
"At the time it was the right decision. Leeds were offering me four years. The Amazon Prime documentary shows what happened: I got there in the morning, my agent said things could go to the wire, I did all the scans and medical stuff. I got to Elland Road about 6pm, did all the pictures with my shirt, all the interviews - because they wanted it to go out in the morning - and then it was strange.
"It got to about 9pm and I'd signed all the papers and then it was from club-to-club. I had people texting me saying 'what's happening?' and I literally didn't know. It wasn't until 15 minutes to go until I thought: 'this might not happen now'.
"I ended up ringing the chairman [of Swansea] to ask him what's happening. It was all a bit crazy and then it wasn't done - I threw my phone. I thought it's not real. The chief exec of Leeds wasn't happy at the time, but then it was just a case of driving home. It was a very weird situation and I think it helped me in some ways."
James returned to Swansea and continued to shine in the Premier League, prompting Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side to launch a bid to sign him in the summer. The rest is history.
